Everyone Stood Up and Walked Out

If something doesn’t truly represent your brand, remaining true to what does will strengthen your voice.

Let's look at how students recently demonstrated what a brand represented to them:

Students at Brunel University, London, staged a walk-out last week when Daily Mail columnist Katie Hopkins came to be part of a debate panel. As Hopkins began to speak, students stood, turned their backs, and finally left the auditorium.

Hopkins has created media controversy on several occasions, including an iTV This Morning interview where she claimed to judge her children’s classmates based on their given names, and a column in The Sun in which she referred to refugees as both “cockroaches” and “feral humans”.

Brunel Students Union President, Ali Milani, stated, "It is important to note that the conversation at no point has been about banning Ms Hopkins from speaking on campus, or denying her right to speak. It is instead about saying it is distasteful and incongruous for our University, as part of a 50th celebration event, to provide a platform to someone who adds nothing to the intellectual or academic discourse; and an individual who publicly utters such overtly bigoted views.

"In short, we have a far higher opinion of our institution than Katie Hopkins and don’t believe the 50th Anniversary celebration should be summed up by the appearance of someone who has no association with Brunel, and provides no valuable intellectual insight. We silently walked out because Ms Hopkins has the right to speak, but we also have the right to express our discontent".

How’s that for strong brand association?

The final question we leave you to ponder:

As a business owner, what are you willing to walk away from to protect your brand?